Monday, March 30, 2009

Carpentry for Children

I'm so excited, ever since discovering this amazing guy Jack McKee and reading his book, Woodshop for Kids, and checking out his inspiring website, I've been wanting to teach a class based on it all. He teaches carpentry to 3-6 year olds! I just think that is so brilliant. I mean, I'm sure he teaches older kids as well, but I just love the idea of teaching younger kids this stuff. I think that if you present the material carefully and thoughtfully they won't endanger themselves AND it will just be so empowering for them. I never learned how to fix or build anything real when I was little, truth be told, I didn't really learn how to do any of that stuff until my late twenties! I think having this kind of knowledge and ability can help people feel more like an active participant in the world and it's workings rather than just standing idly by, letting the big people have all the fun.

I still couldn't figure out how I could set up the class though, but finally today my friend Dorte came over and we hashed it all out. She's going to co-teach with me and we're going to do it at Hyde Park Montessori, where she works. The projects we're going to be doing in the class are so perfect: simple, but the kids are going to be really excited about them. I'm not sure if this class is going to be offered to just the Montessori students or to everybody. The students at the school are definitely going to get first dibs, but I'll let you know if there ends up being availability.

These aren't the projects we're going to be doing, but these are some images from Jack McKee's website that will hopefully inspire you to visit it.